Label and Archive Gmail and Get a Count You Can Trust

You can connect Gmail to your muse so it files mail under labels you name, archives whole conversations out of your inbox, and counts your unread mail by conversation, not by rough estimate.

What it does

Filing in Gmail means two steps that are easy to blur: adding a label, and removing the inbox label when you want the mail out of your inbox as well. Your muse can do both, for one message, a batch, or a whole conversation. It can list your labels and create a new one with your name for it. Archiving keeps the mail in All Mail and in search, with its read state unchanged, so filing is not deleting. Permanent deletion is not offered at all. Counting is where rough numbers mislead. The quick estimate Gmail offers is only an estimate, so your muse counts real results and reports conversations, which is what Gmail shows on screen. A label reports its unread conversations and its unread single messages as two different numbers, and no label count matches the Primary inbox badge, so that number gets counted directly, page by page.

How to use it

1. Open the muse app and go to Settings, then Connectors.
2. Select Connect next to Gmail, sign in with the Google account that holds the mail, and read the permission screen.
3. Start with a count you can check: "How many unread conversations are in my Primary inbox?"
4. Name the filing rule in plain words: which sender or subject, which label, and whether the mail also leaves the inbox.
5. Ask for the list of matching messages first, read it, and only then approve the filing for that batch.
6. Search for one filed message afterwards and confirm it carries the label.

What you need

• A muse account, with access in the US, Canada, Japan, or Singapore
• A Gmail account connected to your muse
• Label names you choose, in your own words

What to watch for

• A count that stops before every page is read is a floor, not a total. An honest answer says "at least" that many.
• Filing a whole conversation files every message in it, including ones you have not opened. Read the match list before you approve a batch.
• While your draft access is set to ask first or deny, searches leave drafts out. A missing draft in the results does not mean it is gone.
• Gmail limits how much work an account can do at once. File in calm batches, not the whole mailbox at once.